Salton G. Automatic Text Processing. The Transformation, Analysis, and Retrieval of Information by Computer

Addison-Wesley, 1989. — 547 p.The current period is known as the information age because more information is generated about more topics than ever before. In this complex world, relevant information is often needed to carry out the tasks at hand and to make intelligent decisions. When large data banks of information are collected and stored, it is difficult to find the data actually needed at a given time, and to distinguish relevant from extraneous data. For this reason, electronic search aids are widely used to process, store, and retrieve information items on demand.
The information of interest at any particular time takes various forms. In particular, standard written data and natural-language texts must be distinguished from spoken utterances and speech sounds, and from graphical and pictorial data. Textual information is primarily important because text is used universally to convey information and to communicate. In addition, text can be automatically processed more easily and less expensively than either speech or pictures.
This book deals with the whole area of automatic text-processing — that is, the handling of texts using automatic equipment. The aim is not to teach laymen or humanists how to program computers to manipulate text, nor to teach scientists language-processing skills. Instead, the book examines the area of text processing as a whole, describing various text-processing methodologies and identifying those tasks now undertaken routinely, while also discussing more experimental procedures not yet ready for operation. For example, it is conceptually easy to take the English text which makes up this book and determine the number of occurrences in the text of the word "information." It is more difficult to identify all the sections in the book that deal with "information storage and retrieval," in part because the words "information" and "retrieval" do not occur explicitly in some relevant sections. It is even more difficult to find the sections exhibiting stylistic similarities with the style used in this preface. Indeed, such a request cannot be processed without specifying the perceived stylistic features characterizing the preface. Analogously, it is very difficult to devise effective methods for retrieving from a library all books whose opinions about the mechanization of text processing reflect the opinions expressed here.
This should be a useful reference for users of text-processing systems and designers of text-processing routines. It can also serve as a textbook in programs of computer science and engineering, library and information science, computational linguistics, as well as programs about relations among science, technology, and society. Various parts of the text have been used in a text-processing course taught at Cornell University to upper-level computer-science undergraduates and first-year graduate students.Part 1 The Information-Processing Environment
The Information Environment
The Computer Environment
The Automated Office
Part 2 Word Processing and File Access
Text Editing and Formatting
Text Compression
Text Encryption
File-Accessing Systems
Part 3 Information-Retrieval Systems
Conventional Text-Retrieval Systems
Automatic Indexing
Advanced Information-Retrieval Models
Part 4 Text Analysis and Language Processing
Language Analysis and Understanding
Automatic Text Transformations
Paperless Information Systems